HARTFORD, CT — A former Connecticut Roman Catholic priest has been sentenced to nine months in prison for helping a teenager buy thousands of rounds of handgun ammunition and giving him 2 pounds of explosives powder.
Paul Gotta was sentenced Friday in federal court in Hartford. The former priest at two parishes in East Windsor pleaded guilty last year to explosives and firearms charges.
Prosecutors say Gotta helped the 17-year-old boy purchase the ammunition in 2012, bought explosives powder for him, and helped him build a pipe bomb.
In 2013, Gotta was suspended from the priesthood after he was accused of sexually assaulting a minor. Prosecutors later dropped the charge as part of a deal in which he pleaded guilty to breach of peace and received no jail time.
